Methodology and grading for pulmonary hypertension evidence review and guideline development.

The American College of Chest Physicians assembled a multidisciplinary, geographically diverse panel of experts in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension to develop clinically relevant practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension in its many variations. That group of experts produced recommendations covering five topic areas, each related to a distinct set of patient-management decisions. This article describes the approach used to develop the guidelines, including identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the evidence, assessing the strength of evidence pertinent to individual guidelines, and grading guideline recommendations.